Got Milk?
Last evening I got caught in the rain on the way back to school for my research project. That makes it the 5th day in a row that I've had to walk under the rain. And, as usual, the rain started when I stepped out from under the shelter of my block and stopped when I got under shelter at school. I'm sensing a pattern here...
Anyway, more than a week ago, my friend Snowywolf (thank you for giving me a topic) brought up this topic about milking cows. So, I spent quite a number of hours searching online for "Who was the First to milk a Cow?" Unfortunately, I have failed. It seems that no one really knows who was the first human to milk a cow. However, I did manage to find some interesting information about milk that I thought I should share. At the same time, this post would conclude my "official" search for the answer to the question posed by Snowywolf (although, I might continue some clandestine investigations ;) when I have time of course...)
One major reason why no one has found the answer to the questions is because milk was discovered very very long ago - approximately 10,000 BC. That's about 12,000 years ago, and they probably didn't have much in terms of writing back then. The era then was known as the agricultural revolution, when humans started to settle down from their hunter-gatherer roaming ways. The word milk itself is of ancient origin. "It can be traced back to our Indo-European ancestors, who used a verb something like *melf- for wiping' or stroking'".
Milk is one of mankind's most ancient foods, and is mentioned 47 times in the Old Testament of The Bible, which also proves its importance. However, the first animal to be milked probably wasn't the cow, but some smaller animal like the sheep or goat or lamb. The earliest evidence of domestication of cows dates back 7000 to 8000 years ago in South-Western Asia, while the keeping of sheep and goats date back to the started of the agricultural revolution.
Humans have also tried to (and gotten) milk most of the animals we have domesticated as well, except for the pig (we are a curious species aren't we?). The oldest known record of animals being kept in herds and milked is a series of cave painting that date back to 5000BC. The Sumerians and Egyptians also have records of drinking milk and even have some recepies on how to prepare some milk products (like yogurt).
The people of the classical world were known to have treated fresh milk as a delicacy, only made available to the rich and royalty, mainly because of the difficulty in keeping the milk from going bad (which would take only a few hours). However, this changed in the modern world with the advent of refrigeration and milk processing techniques like Pasteurization, which allowed milk to be stored for longer periods. So treasure the milk you drink, its a delicacy...
As for cows, archeologist therorise that the Neolithic farmers probably brought their herds along as they colonised new land, hence spreading cows and spreading the idea of milk as a food source. The majority of dairy cows in America, however, came from a much more recent time - the time of Christopher Columbus. When he discovered (or rediscoverd) America, he did not bring along any cows and the lack of milk was said to have contributed to the high death rate, particularly of the young cabin boys. Hence, it became English law that each ship destined for The New World had to carry one cow for every five passengers on board, and the cows where then sold when the ship arrived in America.
Ok, that concludes my post about milk, and although I didn't manage to answer Snowywolf's question, I hope that this post will suffice for now... (Can?? OK?? Pass??) ;)
Click here for the full article.
Anyway, more than a week ago, my friend Snowywolf (thank you for giving me a topic) brought up this topic about milking cows. So, I spent quite a number of hours searching online for "Who was the First to milk a Cow?" Unfortunately, I have failed. It seems that no one really knows who was the first human to milk a cow. However, I did manage to find some interesting information about milk that I thought I should share. At the same time, this post would conclude my "official" search for the answer to the question posed by Snowywolf (although, I might continue some clandestine investigations ;) when I have time of course...)
One major reason why no one has found the answer to the questions is because milk was discovered very very long ago - approximately 10,000 BC. That's about 12,000 years ago, and they probably didn't have much in terms of writing back then. The era then was known as the agricultural revolution, when humans started to settle down from their hunter-gatherer roaming ways. The word milk itself is of ancient origin. "It can be traced back to our Indo-European ancestors, who used a verb something like *melf- for wiping' or stroking'".
Milk is one of mankind's most ancient foods, and is mentioned 47 times in the Old Testament of The Bible, which also proves its importance. However, the first animal to be milked probably wasn't the cow, but some smaller animal like the sheep or goat or lamb. The earliest evidence of domestication of cows dates back 7000 to 8000 years ago in South-Western Asia, while the keeping of sheep and goats date back to the started of the agricultural revolution.
Humans have also tried to (and gotten) milk most of the animals we have domesticated as well, except for the pig (we are a curious species aren't we?). The oldest known record of animals being kept in herds and milked is a series of cave painting that date back to 5000BC. The Sumerians and Egyptians also have records of drinking milk and even have some recepies on how to prepare some milk products (like yogurt).
The people of the classical world were known to have treated fresh milk as a delicacy, only made available to the rich and royalty, mainly because of the difficulty in keeping the milk from going bad (which would take only a few hours). However, this changed in the modern world with the advent of refrigeration and milk processing techniques like Pasteurization, which allowed milk to be stored for longer periods. So treasure the milk you drink, its a delicacy...
As for cows, archeologist therorise that the Neolithic farmers probably brought their herds along as they colonised new land, hence spreading cows and spreading the idea of milk as a food source. The majority of dairy cows in America, however, came from a much more recent time - the time of Christopher Columbus. When he discovered (or rediscoverd) America, he did not bring along any cows and the lack of milk was said to have contributed to the high death rate, particularly of the young cabin boys. Hence, it became English law that each ship destined for The New World had to carry one cow for every five passengers on board, and the cows where then sold when the ship arrived in America.
Ok, that concludes my post about milk, and although I didn't manage to answer Snowywolf's question, I hope that this post will suffice for now... (Can?? OK?? Pass??) ;)
The history of milk is a complicated and interesting topic. Generally, the emergence of milk as a food traces back to the agricultural revolution, 10,000BC. Prehistoric hunter-gatherers captured animals but did not domesticate them. Once people had the wherewithall to settle down, they domesticated animals and learned to utilize their byproducts. Dairy foods (milk, cheese, yogurt) flourished. Pasteurization [1861] played a significant role in the history milk production.
Click here for the full article.
posted by CS at 8:45 AM
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